How Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity get player choice right

We chat with the creators behind one of the best modern ARPGs about choice, morality, and the future of the genre.

It's official. We're finally leaving the era of blue and red, good or evil, hug or punch RPG morality behind. And some of the people pushing for that change are none other than the folks at Obsidian Entertainment, long time and beloved RPG developers. With Pillars of Eternity in the bag and Tyranny in the headlights, Brian Heins and Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment agreed to chat with us at PAX West about how they approach player choice in modernizing the ARPG, what they've learned from Pillars of Eternity, and how they're planning to carry their refined ethos into the future. They've left a bland dichotomy behind for something more subtle, casting you as a character you may not identify with—in Tyranny's case, an evil Judge Dredd style executioner—in search of empathy, even in the darkest places.